Interracial Relationship Suspected Cause In Texas Man’s Murder

In 1998, the small town of Jasper, Texas, made headlines for all the wrong reasons when an African-American man, James Byrd Jr., was killed by a group of white men who dragged him alive behind their truck for miles.

Now, more than fifteen years later, locals in the neighboring town of Hemphill are concerned that racism could yet again be raising its ugly head in their midst after Alfred Wright — the brother of American Idol contestant Savion Wright — was found dead with his tongue ripped out amid rumors of his relationship with a relative of a local law enforcement agent, who is white.

“Alfred was dating the white relative of someone in law enforcement,” one local source tells Radar.

“You can’t do that in East Texas. If you’re a black man, you’ll get killed. They still have cross burnings in that area!”

Adding to the mystery, CNN reports that his wife found three charges for local hotels when she was out of town the month before he died.

And while the exact nature of Wright’s alleged relationship with the woman is unclear, Chuck Foreman, a private investigator hired by Wright’s family to work on the case, tells Radar exclusively that the Sheriff’s Department “knew about the rumors [about the woman and Wright]. That’s what makes it interesting. [They] definitely knew.”

One would think that based on the condition of Alfred’s body AND this alleged affair, that foul play would AT LEAST have to be considered

Despite the fact that initial searchers turned up his watch and pieces of the clothes he’d been wearing when he disappeared, Sabine Conty Sheriff Tom Maddox called off the search after just four days.

Wright’s family later found the body on their own, several weeks later. Lying in a pasture, he was stripped down to his boxer shorts, and his body had been mutilated.

“His [two front] teeth were missing and his tongue was removed,” Foreman tells Radar. “And an ear was missing.” According to some reports, his throat also appeared to be cut.

Those wounds came to light in a second autopsy completed by an independent official hired by the family, who said there had been “severe trauma” to Wright’s body. The official autopsy, however, claimed that Wright had died of an accidental overdose of cocaine and methamphetamine, and attributed the other wounds to “animal and insect activity.”

Foreman insists that the drug autopsy may be a smokescreen for the real cause of Wright’s death. “He was a family man, not a drug user,” the investigator tells Radar. “If he was doing any drugs at all, it would’ve been recreational. And it’s hard to OD on what they found, cocaine, methamphetamine, that kind of stuff, if you’re 28 and you’re a grown, healthy man doing it recreationally.”

Anyone else smell fish?

Authorities insist that there is no evidence this was a hate crime, but J. Kevin Dutton, district attorney for Sabine and San Augustine counties, said in a statement to the Associated Press that he “welcomes the investigation by the Justice Department as there are serious allegations being made that need to be resolved.”

Muhfuggas in Texas never loved us. Everything about this case from conflicting autopsy reports, to the janky cops, to the search being called off so quickly REEKS of a cover-up.